Mechanization of agricultural equipment has produced on the one hand the ability for a single person to cultivate vast areas of land, but on the other hand has also provided the single operator with the inability to efficiently cull all of the produce off of the acreage due to limitations within the machinery itself.
An example of this phenomena would be the agricultural endeavors in the corn belt in which combines start in the southern most areas of the belt and work their way northward, processing enormous amounts of grain heretofore beyond the manipulative scope of a single person. Unfortunately, machines of this type have not heretofore satisfactorily addressed the problems associated with engaging corn stalks which are not in a vertically upright position, and therefore can not enter within the throat area of the harvestor which leads to an entrance for taking the stalk and removing the ears. It is to be noted that the throat and entrance areaways are relatively laterally spaced from each other to correspond to the planting distance of rows of corn. Not surprisingly therefore ears of corn and their stalks which have been bent downwardly due to wind, or other types of phenomena would merely go under the machine and not be processed.
While heretofore the downed corn has traditionally remained unharvested, providing an ideal feeding area for wild game, conservation of resources and spiraling prices has required that this downed corn be harvested so as to increase the yield per acre. The inventor has found that by use of the attachment according to the instant application, an additional 15 to 20 bushels per acre of downed corn can be retrieved and possibly more.
Moreover, in fields where rain and wind damage have caused an entire field to bend over, in order to salvage any of the crop, it is frequently necessary to either have the operator of the combine stop it and walk in front of the machine and attempt to feed the stalks into the combine manually, an exceedingly dangerous task and extremely time consuming. The inventor personally has spent a week combining only seven acres of downed corn and frequently getting off the combine risking a chance of getting caught within the machine. With the attachment, the inventor has combined 80 acres in a shorter amount of time and had gotten off the combine only one time.
The following patents reflect the state of the art of which applicant is aware in so far as these references appear germane to the Patent process:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,826,551 Krenzel;
U.S. Pat. No. 2,648,942 Grant et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,331,196 Grant;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,152 Storm et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,792 Shriver et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,355 Blake et al.
The Grant Patent is seen to be relevant in that it shows a corn head attachment to a harvestor in which chains having upstanding lugs are provided on the upper surfaces of all dividers including the outside dividers for handling down corn.
The Shriver et al. patent and Storm et al. patent each teach the use of a roller placed on the outermost dividers for facilitating the harvesting of down corn. The remaining references appear to be of general interest, merely showing structure having isolated elements that may share coincidental similarity with the instant application.
By way of contrast, none of these references teach singularly nor render obvious in combination the provision of chains with lugs on top of the divider being flexibly disposed and including elongate rollers on the outermost divider, all of which are driven from a unitary drive system, and suitably fashioned for attachment to any of a plurality of harvestors. The rollers according to the instant application are directed to roll inwardly toward the center portion of the machine to encourage downed stalks to migrate into the harvesting area, and in combination with the chains having upwardly extending resilient fingers to urge the corn stalks up off the ground and toward the throat and entrance ways of the combine allow for a uniform harvesting of substantially all of the corn in the field.